Pointer Environment Documents section
Pointer Environment Documents section |
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Last Updated: 22.03.2020
The Pointer Environment gives the QL a pointer based (keyboard and mouse controlled) environment, where programs can be controlled by using an on-screen pointer (usually a little arrow), and an extended console driver which among other things saves and restores the contents of on-screen windows as you switch between programs on the QL and its compatibles. The Pointer Environment is usually bundled with the Hotkeys System, and hotkeys have been a source of difficulty for new users - these articles set out to provide an easy to follow introduction to Hotkeys and a limited introduction to writing Boot programs for use with pointer environment. Apart from the QPAC2 manual, there is very little by way of documentation for users new to the system, so I have added the following files to this page, with grateful thanks to the authors concerned, and to the publisher of QL Today magazine from whence the Hotkeys articles were reproduced.
P.E.Idiot's Guide (86K) - Norman Dunbar's excellent introduction to the Pointer Environment. Alternatively, click here to read it online (thanks to Tim Swenson for the online version).
Hotkeys Part 1 (7KB) - Part 1 of the QL
Today series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys Part 2 (6KB) - Part 2 of the QL Today
series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys Part 3 (6KB) - Part 3 of the QL Today
series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys keywords (15KB) - Keyword guide for the
Hotkey system (3KB)
If you have never used pointer environment before, this is a good
introductory article from David Denham. Originally published in QL Today
magazine under the title of "It's Not Rude To Point", this
package includes the article itself plus a copy of the version of pointer
environment referred to in the article.
pe.zip (56K)
The QBranch QPAC2 supplement - a beginners document showing how to start
using QPAC2, some hotkey commands and writing your own boot files. The zip
file includes the text in a choice of three formats, for Quill, Text 87 or
plain text.
qpac2.zip (38K)
pe.html - an online introductory article for the pointer environment and mouse systems for QL. Also available as a PDF file (234K), or a Word document (113K).
Things - few subjects in the QL world have caused as much
head-scratching as Things. A Thing is a general purpose resource for QDOS
or SMSQ, but Things are so general that it is impossible to give them
specific names, hence "Thing." The rather general nature of
Things makes it just as hard to explain them as to invent a meaningful
name, but hopefully after reading reading Jochen Merz's series of articles
from QL Today magazine you'll be a little wiser.
thingdoc.zip Quill DOC files. (13K)
ThingInfo program from Franz Hermann. A pointer driven program
which lists Things installed in the computer, click on the name of the
Thing and it tries ot provide more information on it.
thginfo.zip (24K)
Thing Information Files - Some information files about Things
and programming for Things. Gathered by Jim Gilmour, some documents
believed to be from Tony Tebby originally.
thing05.zip (15K)
German and French QPAC2 Things List - When accessing some of the Things
available in QPAC2, it can be advantageous to know that some of the names
vary between the English, French and German versions of QPAC2. Here is a list of
the QPAC2 Thing names for three languages - thanks to Per Witte for this information.
thingnames.zip (1K)
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